General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJane Mayer:Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century
Jane Badass Mayer has done it. And dark money billionaires know it, buying Manchin to blow it.Rachel is putting this before the public tonight on the #1 show on all of cable. Jane Mayer will be on Rachel's show tomorrow, Tuesday.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/inside-the-koch-backed-effort-to-block-the-largest-election-reform-bill-in-half-a-century
On the call, McKenzie, the Koch operative, cited one ray of hope in the fight against the reforms, noting that his research found that the most effective message was arguing that a politically diverse coalition of groups opposed the bill, including the American Civil Liberties Union. In our message example that we used, we used the example of A.C.L.U., Planned Parenthood, and conservative organizations backed by Charles Koch as an example of groups that oppose H.R. 1, he said. I think, you know, when you put that in front of people . . . theyre, like, Oh, conservatives and some liberal groups all oppose this, like, I should maybe think about this more. You know, there must be bigger implications to this if these groups are all coming together on it.
However, that test message was inaccurate. Planned Parenthood does not oppose the For the People Act. It is, in fact, on a list of organizations giving the legislation their full backing. And the A.C.L.U. supports almost all of the expansions of voting rights contained in the bill, although it has sided with the Koch groups and other conservative organizations in arguing that donors to nonprofit groups could be harassed if their names are disclosed. Advocates for greater transparency in political spending argue that there is no serious evidence of any such harassment. Asked if she could cite any examples, Kate Ruane, a senior legislative counsel at the A.C.L.U., said that the only one she knew about was atypicalthe online backlash experienced by the actor Mila Kunis, after she had made a donation to a pro-abortion group in the name of Mike Pence, a staunch opponent of abortion rights.
With so little public support, the bills opponents have already begun pressuring individual senators. On March 20th, several major conservative groups, including Heritage Action, Tea Party Patriots Action, Freedom Works, and the local and national branches of the Family Research Council, organized a rally in West Virginia to get Senator Joe Manchin, the conservative Democrat, to come out against the legislation. They also pushed Manchin to oppose any efforts by Democrats to abolish the Senates filibuster rule, a tactical step that the Party would probably need to take in order to pass the bill. The filibuster is really the only thing standing in the way of progressive far-left policies like H.R. 1, which is Pelosis campaign to take over Americas elections, Noah Weinrich, the press secretary at Heritage Action, declared during a West Virginia radio interview. On Thursday, Manchin issued a statement warning Democrats that forcing the measure through the Senate would only exacerbate the distrust that millions of Americans harbor against the U.S. government.
Pressure tactics from dark-money groups may work on individual lawmakers. The legislation faces an uphill fight in the Senate. But, as the January 8th conference call shows, opponents of the legislation have resorted to under-the-dome-type strategies because the broad public is against them when it comes to billionaires buying elections.
The face of dark money
StClone
(11,686 posts)...already would you, please.
ancianita
(36,133 posts)But I get ya...
StClone
(11,686 posts)My awareness of the Koch companies goes all the way back to the 70's. My family business would get a business supply catalog from Koch (which I had always pronounced Kotch). As an active participant in environment causes in the '90's I kept hearing of this evil Kansas-based polluter of mega-diverse assets after its oil-based start. I finally made the connection between between the "Kotch" and the Koch in the 2008 when Bartcop kept deriding them.
I am sure the way the Kochs' operated their evil, ugly style of selfish toxic wealth building has built-in self-sustaining structures surviving long after their Ayn Rand Libertarians self have moldered away. Wealth like theirs will likely remain intact for centuries(!) if the book "Wealth and Democracy" is any guide.
Here in Wisconsin we were one of the first States to be subsumed by whims and vanities of egos as big as can be.
http://realkochfacts.com/the-koch-brothers-and-americans-for-prosperity-in-wisconsin/
ancianita
(36,133 posts)Given how far back your awareness goes, you might like the lengthy story about him that Duke historian Nancy MacLean relates in Democracy In Chains. He hooked up with an economist named Buchanan, and their joint economic and corporate cover for racism took off from the mid-70's onward.
Thanks for the WI link.
Here's one for you -- all the 544 universities whose economics departments he's bought.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12PueWQ-mfDuFfE9kHp8gYrUFPcjwZxsuzhBsu5XRJ5I/edit#gid=0
StClone
(11,686 posts)...on the sidelines of Hilton Coliseum, Iowa State University. Yeah, the Kochs liked to kill free thinking in higher ed.
My best, Joe StClone,
live love laugh
(13,129 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,627 posts)Someone needs to have him take off his socks and shoes.
ancianita
(36,133 posts)who presents himself as a banal looking suburban grandpa. That's reality.
Remember, too, how they imagine us with lingo like "Demoncrats."
Grover Norquist, [who was on the call days after we won Georgia] the founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform ... expressed alarm at the damage that the disclosure provisions could do. The left is not stupid, theyre evil, he warned. They know what theyre doing. They have correctly decided that this is the way to disable the freedom movement.
For them, money IS freedom. Mayer paraphrased that idea from Koch in her book, Dark Money.
But she quoted him verbatim when he said: "I don't pay people just to vote how I want, I pay them to say exactly what I tell them to say."
Money IS freedom. That's exactly what they mean by the word freedom. By any means necessary, including ending democratic voting across states.
The only way to end their power is for Schumer to nuke the filibuster.
There is no other way around this war. Schumer must stand up and make S1 happen.
FakeNoose
(32,748 posts)Thanks I'll definitely read this!
Anything by Jane Mayer is a worthwhile read. On the other hand, Charles Koch is the most despicable man alive so it's hard to work up the enthusiasm. For sure I'll be watching Rachel Maddow tomorrow night.
KT2000
(20,587 posts)they want senators to be elected by state legislatures. That is after they have controlled redistricting and made voting difficult.
Thats right: ALECs model legislation would repeal the 17th amendment, end more than a century of American citizens electing U.S. senators at the ballot box, and empower gerrymandered legislatures to choose senators for us, as was the practice in the 18th and 19th centuries.
https://www.salon.com/2017/07/26/alecs-scary-plan-for-electing-your-senators_partner/
ancianita
(36,133 posts)After that, the judicial system will fall. Like Koch said, "If you don't have the courts, you got nothing."
ancianita
(36,133 posts)The damage the Kochs have done in states already help them keep their puppet politicians in place. Theyre not fooling anyone with talk of backing down, theyre just retreating deeper in to the political shadows.
Find out what the Kochs have done in states across the country. Below are key states theyre playing in:
Colorado
Florida
Iowa
Nevada
New Hampshire
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Wisconsin